Sandwell Valley is the only real place to ride within easy distance from my front door. I often nip down the cut and have a spin over there.
Good to see some surfacing on the trails as it tends to get crazily muddy and waterlogged.
Checked out the first little loop a couple of times, look forward to giving the new stuff a go when it's completed.

This is good news - the last time I rode the first phase of the newly built trails in early February the gay cottaging was still going on - this was on Saturday afternoon in daylight, they quickly dispersed when I rode the trails must of thought I was an uncover patrol...

I popped into Birmingham Bike Foundry last night to pick up a chainring for my commuter and picked up a flyer about a possible pump track in Stirchley as well which would be ideal as it would be right on my doorstep

The pump track is on the kids playground by the looks over by the crazy golf and should be fenced off at the moment but the kids have took the fence down by the looks. Not sure about its state of completion.

There seem to be a lot of locals very keen on a group ride when it's finished - perhaps if you're really local you could find a way of getting involved in getting it finished first? Think how much more pleasurable it'd be riding something you helped build.

I'm not local any more but if I was I'd be volunteering my services if it was possible.

Thanks for the condescension. I believe the trails are being built by BikeTrack so there is only so much volunteers can do at this point. There is a local cycling group called Cycling in Sandwell but their Facebook page is more active. If anyone wants to get involved - that's where to start. I'm also sure that if there were anything that could be done by people not directly involved in the construction/organisation, then I imagine Shindiggy would have said, maybe at the same point he suggested the group ride?

Personally, I've given time to a number of altruistic endeavours over the years (Chase Trails, Birmingham BMX club/track), but you can't do everything.

Now, I'm off to ride my bike on some slightly more natural trails, and do my bit by continuing to clear debris and unblock drainage channels as I go.

We played around jubilee woods, the track is looking great, will be better when bedded in, some of the table tops are in the wrong place, i.e when you cant get speed before it, or just after a slight incline, however I cant wait to go back when finished.

Theres quite a few natural bits around there that are good.
Also found what i believe to be the 'hilltop decent' very fast singletrack mahem haha.
The pump track looks good, but is fenced off. Looks complete though so imagine will be riding in no time.

Went round it last night and was really impressed. Guys were still working. There's quite a big rocky drop(for lack of better word, it's rollable but sort of drops away near the ground) which was quite hairy for a pansy like me and there's some really nice fast flowing areas.

It's not really clear how it's all going to tie together as bits are closed and there's no signs for direction.

Ive rode it last weekend and while its not amazing , its great for what they have and all involved,shindiggy etc should be patted on the back for a job well done
all black bits are ridable even on a rigid singlespeed .... cus ive rode them ..
theres some pics on another thread .... its there too enjoy